First Man- Navajo GodDeity"First of the Men"

Origins in the First World

In the Diné Bahaneʼ, First Man formed where white cloud met black cloud at the eastern edge of the First World, a small dark realm surrounded by water. First Woman formed at the west, where yellow and blue clouds met.

First Man carried the medicine bundle. Inside it lay sacred soil for building mountains and crystals for placing stars. Wrapped alongside them were the seeds of witchcraft. Everything needed to create a world and everything needed to undo one, in the same bundle.

Journey Through the Worlds

In the Black World, the Insect People’s transgressions made the realm uninhabitable. First Man led the beings upward through an opening in the sky. In the Blue World, disputes with avian inhabitants forced another ascent. In the Yellow World, conflict between First Man and First Woman led to crisis, and Coyote’s theft of Water Monster’s children brought a flood that drove the final, desperate climb through a hollow reed into the Glittering World.

Creating the World

Using materials from the lower worlds, First Man and the Holy People created the four sacred mountains that bound the Navajo homeland. He placed white shell in Sisnaajiní at the east and turquoise in Tsoodzil at the south, abalone in Dookʼoʼoosłiíd at the west and jet in Dibé Nitsaa at the north. He fastened each to the earth with lightning.

First Man and the Holy People then laid a buckskin on the ground and began positioning star crystals in precise constellations, each with its own seasonal purpose. They placed the North Star and the Revolving Male and Revolving Female constellations as guides for travelers and markers for planting. Before the work was finished, Coyote grew impatient with the careful arrangement and scattered the remaining crystals across the sky. That careless gesture created the Milky Way.

Discovery of Changing Woman

After the emergence, First Man noticed a dark cloud resting atop Gobernador Knob. He climbed and found a baby girl born from the meeting of darkness and dawn. He recognized her sacred nature and, with First Woman, raised her. She grew to maturity in four days, each day corresponding to a cardinal direction. When she reached puberty, the Holy People gathered to perform the first Kinaaldá, the coming-of-age ceremony that every Navajo girl would reenact. The child was Changing Woman.

The Separation of the Sexes

In the Yellow World, the quarrel between First Man and First Woman over which sex needed the other more split the people apart. First Man took the men across a river. For four years they lived on opposite banks. The men’s fields produced poorly without the women’s knowledge. The women’s crops failed without the men’s labor. The women conceived in unnatural ways, and from these unions came the Naayééʼ, monsters that would later threaten the Glittering World. When both sides had suffered enough, they reunited.

The Seeds of Witchcraft

First Man carried more than creative power in his medicine bundle. Alongside the sacred soil and star crystals lay the knowledge of witchcraft. According to traditions recorded by Washington Matthews, this knowledge predated the emergence. First Man understood evil as thoroughly as he understood good. Both were in the bundle from the beginning.